from Congress. They felt that they had more
dignity and power if they sat in their own legislatures. The assembly
which in the first days had as members men of the type of Washington and
Franklin sank into a gathering of second-rate men who were divided into
fierce factions. They debated interminably and did little. Each member
usually felt that he must champion the interests of his own State
against the hostility of others. It was not easy to create a sense of
national life. The union was only a league of friendship. States which
for a century or more had barely acknowledged their dependence upon
Great Britain, were chary about coming under the control of a new
centralizing authority at Philadelphia. The new States were sovereign
and some of them went so far as to send envoys of their own to negotiate
with foreign powers in Europe. When it was urged that Congress should
have the power to raise taxes in the States, there were patriots who
asked sternly what the war was about if it was not to vindicate the
principle that the people of a State alone should have power of taxation
over themselves. Of New England all the other States were jealous and
they particularly disliked that proud and censorious city which already
was accused of believing that God had made Boston for Himself and all
the rest of the world for Boston. The religion of New England did not
suit the Anglicans of Virginia or the Roman Catholics of Maryland, and
there was resentful suspicion of Puritan intolerance. John Adams said
quite openly that there were no religious teachers in Philadelphia to
compare with those of Boston and naturally other colonies drew away from
the severe and rather acrid righteousness of which he was a type.

Inefficiency meanwhile brought terrible suffering at Valley Forge,
and the horrors of that winter remain still vivid in the memory of the
American people. The army marched to Valley Forge on December 17, 1777,
and in midwinter everything from houses to entrenchments had still to be
created. At once there was busy activity in cutting down trees for the
log huts. They were built nearly square, sixteen feet by fourteen, in
rows, with the door opening on improvised streets. Since boards were
scarce, and it was difficult to make roofs rainproof, Washington tried
to stimulate ingenuity by offering a reward of one hundred dollars for
an improved method of roofing. The fireplaces of wood were protected
with thick clay. Firewood was a